I don’t hate flying games, I hate the way they make me feel. No, I don’t feel nauseous when I play, I feel inadequate, like I am an idiot. Why? Because using a gamepad to fly is hard. On top of that, this game in particular, has a checkpoint system that, on occasion, saves, just before you’re about to fail a mission. So you go and try again, and again, and again. Eventually, you just give up and restart and whole damned mission over again.

That’s the problem with this type of mission-based game, if you get into a jam you have to backtrack a half-hour to get out of it. That is just, plain, frustrating and goes a long way toward me telling you not to buy this game.

But that’s not what I’m going to tell you. Why? Because Tom Clancy’s HAWX 2, from Ubisoft, is still pretty awesome, even with that issue. Really, it is. As I said flying games generally never make me feel very good but when I finish a mission in this game I think "hell yeah, I got wings!" No, I never managed to master flying in any Battlefield game. I usually just used it to get from point A to B quickly and then bail out... doesn’t everyone?

HAWX 2 continues to deliver on what the original promised. Somewhat realistic, high-flying dog fighting, varied mission content and all set in Tom Clancy’s now classic universe.

I’ve now flown several types of missions including providing air support for both land and air-based friendlies in various fighters (Hornets, MIGs, Warthogs, Foxhounds), covering fire and targeting elimination via UAV and defensive missions where you have to fight off incoming waves of enemies both land and air.

This is where the game really excels, the variety of the mission content. It also shines in the variety of weapons and aircraft that you can pilot. Now I’m no real-life pilot, I leave that to a handful of friends as well as highly-trained strangers. Yes, I have flown a plane on a handful of occasions (I’ve also jumped out of them just as many times, no not because the ones I was flying were going to crash). So while I might know the difference between an altimeter and an attitude indicator, I’m certainly not a seasoned pilot, virtually or realistically.